Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 13 Pang Yun's Ambition

Pang Yun sat in the arena of the semi-final of the 6th New Concept Essay Competition and opened the test paper in front of him. There were two questions in total:
Topic 1: The world I cannot reach

Question 2: Write an essay after reading the following text: There is a very small bird that can fly tens of thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean. All it needs is a branch. It holds the branch in its mouth, and when it gets tired, it throws the branch on the water and rests for a while.

Just choose one of them to write.

The question was not difficult and there was a lot of room for creativity. Pang Yun took a deep breath and decided to choose the second question to start writing.

Pang Yun arrived in Shanghai early on Monday morning, just in time to avoid apologizing to Zhang Chao. Pang Yun didn't think there was anything wrong with this - although he did go to cause trouble for Zhang Chao that time, in the end he ended up with mud in his crotch, which was shit anyway.

Putting aside the facts, is Zhang Chao innocent? What qualifications does he have to approach Lan Ting?
Pang Yun had been pursuing this girl for three whole years, but never received a favorable response from her. How could Zhang Chao, with just a few words, get into the radio station that Lan Ting regarded as a forbidden zone?

Pang Yun couldn't swallow this.

Now the opportunity has come - as long as he can win the second prize or even the first prize in this rematch, he will become the first student in No. 3 Middle School to be specially recruited by a university or admitted with reduced scores based on his writing skills.

This is enough to constitute a fatal attraction for a girl like Lanting who loves writing.

In order to seize the last chance of his high school career, Pang Yun did not hesitate to use his family connections and money to ask his loving aunt to find a young writer from the Fuhai Federation of Literary and Art Circles to polish his preliminary work.

However, the final color was smoothed out, which was equivalent to the young writer rewriting it for him.

But what does it matter? As long as he can qualify for the semi-finals, it will be fine. Before coming to Shanghai, he had prepared five essays in advance under the "careful guidance" of the young writer, and each of them had a topic direction.

Although the "New Concept Essay Contest" is named "new", the topics of the semi-finals after the second session have become less and less "new".

Like the first session - the invigilator walked into the classroom, took out an apple, took a bite, put it on the table, and said to the contestants: "This is the question" - there has never been such a classic scene again.

As long as the ideas for the questions in the rematch fall from the sky to the ground, there must be traces to follow.

Among the five "theme essays" prepared by Pang Yun, there is one that is very consistent with the idea of ​​the second question.

The second question essentially tests the candidate's value choices. Is there any meaning in flying almost endlessly, resting in the wind and sleeping in the waves like the bird in the material?

In fact, such a topic was presented in Zhuangzi's "Xiaoyaoyou" as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. Dapeng carried the blue sky on its back and soared 90,000 miles to the North Sea. In the eyes of the world, it was an unparalleled feat, but it was laughed at by cicadas and doves. These two small insects and birds thought that their life of fluttering among the wormwood and short trees was pretty good, and they would not be in danger of death even if they fell to the ground, so they could not understand why Dapeng wanted to cultivate the wind and fly south.

The ancient sages of more than 2,000 years ago naturally looked down upon the meanness of the cicada and the pigeon, but today, values ​​are undoubtedly more diversified, and simply singing the high-sounding tune of idealism may not necessarily win the favor of the judges.

Pang Yun's writing ability is outstanding among ordinary students, and he quickly established the idea of ​​"reverse conception". The theme of the essay he was going to copy happened to be "little happiness in life".

As Pang Yun wrote, he was extremely excited, thinking that this time the award would be easy for him - there was even a good chance of winning the first prize.

Thinking about the first prize winner getting direct admission to a top university, his hand holding the pen trembled a little.

He even saw himself meditating and walking by the Unnamed Lake of Yanda University, chatting and laughing with the top students from all over the country. At this time, he suddenly looked down on Lan Ting.

Lan Ting is pretty and talented, but her grades are only around 600 - although better than mine, it is unknown whether she can get into a 985 university, let alone Yanda.

How could Yanda be short of beautiful, talented and top-notch female classmates?

Not to mention Yanda, there were two or three beauties who were as pretty as Lanting in the semi-finals. The fact that they could participate in the semi-finals showed that their writing ability was better than Lanting's - Lanting must have submitted her manuscript.

With the halo of "winner of the first prize of the 6th New Concept Essay Competition" and his fair and elegant appearance, how can he not be able to pick up a beauty who is no less beautiful than Lan Ting?
Lanting, Lanting, you looked down on me before, but from now on I will make you unable to reach me.

The more Pang Yun thought about it, the more proud he felt. Every word on the manuscript paper was written with such force that it seemed as if he wanted to vent out all the "grievances" he had suffered over the years through the tip of his pen.

The duration of the rematch is three hours, which is much longer than the college entrance examination, giving contestants enough time to draft or even rewrite.

Pang Yun was very well prepared and wrote very quickly, so it took less than 2 hours to complete an article of nearly words.

After he finished writing his last stroke and checked for typos, he raised his hand to hand in his paper. He was also the first student to hand in his paper in the examination room.

The other contestants couldn't help but look up and look at this plain-looking boy in surprise. The semi-final lasted for 3 hours, and the questions were not difficult, so most people thought of using enough time and carefully polishing the essay.

Pang Yun, who became the focus of everyone, held his head high and walked out of the semi-final examination room with a cool look on his face.

复赛考场位于沪上的一家老牌酒店内，复赛时间是下午1点30到4点30。庞云交卷的时候，时间还不到3点30。

Pang Yun's mother was waiting for her son in the parent waiting area outside the examination room. When she saw Pang Yun coming out, she put a coat on him, handed him some hot water, and asked anxiously, "How was it? Were the questions difficult?"

Pang Yun made an OK gesture, indicating that everything was under control, and then whispered, "I bet right. I'll get the second prize." Pang Yun's mother was immediately overjoyed. She kissed Pang Yun hard on the face and praised him, "You're really my good son." Then she quickly took out her cell phone to call home.

Pang Yun held his mother's hand and said, "Don't worry about calling. Let's go out first."

After Pang Yun found out that he was the first to hand in his paper, he had his own plans. He knew that for such an influential competition, there would be reporters waiting outside the hotel where the competition was held, ready to interview the participating students.

As the first student to hand in his paper, he will definitely receive special attention. His handsome photos will appear in various newspapers and he may even appear on TV news programs - who else in No. 3 Middle School has such treatment?

It’s me, Pang Yun!
When walking out of the hotel, Pang Yun walked very slowly. He even simulated the reporters' questions and his own responses in his mind. Only when he felt that everything was foolproof did he stride towards the door.

Through the glass of the gate, he could clearly see the reporters' cameras and also saw teachers Zhao and Li who were sitting on the podium and explaining discipline and precautions to them during the morning pre-match meeting. They were waving their hands as if trying to stop the reporters from approaching.

"Shanghai is Shanghai, the reporters are so active." Pang Yun sighed in his heart. He straightened his hair and clothes, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, and after confirming that there was no problem with his image, he walked out of the door with a confident and steady step.

(End of this chapter)